Over a million Afghan refugees undocumented in Pakistan: reports

ISLAMABAD: Over one million Afghan nationals are residing in Pakistan without legal documentation, according to official figures presented to the country’s Ministry of Interior and subsequently to the Apex Committee and Prime Minister’s Secretariat, amidst discussions on a new policy for Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Reports indicate that these undocumented Afghans have entered Pakistan illegally over the past five years, spreading across 32 districts. A significant portion, migrating after the Taliban’s rise to power in Kabul, represents about 30 percent of the influx in the last two years. Various institutions across the country have cooperated to collect this comprehensive data.

The total Afghan refugees in Pakistan, as per the latest 2023 data, stands at over four million. This includes 1.3 million registered refugees, one million lacking any form of legal documentation, and 1.7 million currently undergoing verification of their identity documents. Many of these undocumented individuals are involved in small-scale businesses across the regions they inhabit.

BREAKDOWN

The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the Afghan Refugees Commissionerate, now operating under the Ministry of Interior, have registered approximately 1.3 million Afghan nationals as part of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan 2023 initiative.

The breakdown of undocumented Afghans includes approximately 300,000 in seven districts of Balochistan, 400,000 in 17 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 150,000 in four districts of Sindh, and 100,000 in various cities of Punjab province.

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The majority of these undocumented individuals are concentrated in key areas such as Loralai, Qillah Saifullah, Qilla Abdullah, Quetta, Peshawar, D.I. Khan, D.G. Khan, Tank, Bannu, the tribal areas of KPK, Karachi, Hyderabad, Layyah, Bhakkar, and Rawalpindi. Specific locations such as the Afghan refugee camps in Loralai’s area of Katwai, Gazgai, and Zarkarez are highlighted, with thousands of illegal Afghan citizens present, posing a significant threat to the peace of the area.

The Pakistani government, along with international agencies, is grappling with the challenge of managing this undocumented population amidst concerns over security, social services, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, as they work towards implementing the new policy for Afghan refugees in Pakistan. Deputy commissioners of 101 districts have indicated that it will take another month to gather complete records of the undocumented Afghan nationals.

SECURITY CONCERNS

Furthermore, the report uncovers the presence of individuals from banned organizations from Afghanistan who have gathered in large numbers in the districts of Loralai, Qilla Abdullah, and Qillah Saifullah, with their supporters and relatives also increasing rapidly in these areas. In the tehsil of Duki in Loralai, 70 percent of Afghan citizens are working in coal mines, many of whom lack identification, which could pose a risk to the region’s peace.

The presence of criminals and banned organizations in Duki poses a severe security risk for visitors from Qatar and Dubai, as well as for the local population. The Pakistani authorities are under pressure to address these security concerns while also providing humanitarian assistance to the legitimate refugees within their borders.